Emergency Room Visits, Primary Care Access, Hospital Finances and Health Outcomes under Medicaid Expansion

The Medicaid Expansion of 2010 under the Affordable Care Act had hoped to improve health care access and improve quality. Since its passage, emergency rooms continue being overcrowded by new Medicaid enrollees. This has created a change in hospital payer mix, which has affected hospital finances (Nikpay et al, 2014). Emergency rooms continue to provide acute care for twenty eight percent of the population (McClelland et al, 2014). The shortage of primary care doctors and locations has further fueled the overcrowding of the ER. A health disparity gap will continue to grow among expansion and non-expansion states as the previously uninsured population start to receive better access to care (Nikpay et al, 2014). As the effects of Medicaid expansion vary from state to state, some state policymakers are using research data to address these issues. This literature review will provide an overview of the findings discovered by empirical research.